IRAN: Iran has not agreed to an offer by the European Union to receive nuclear technology in exchange for abandoning its uranium enrichment programme, but it will consider the proposal, an Iranian official said yesterday.
"It is just at the initial stage. The matter has to be considered on both sides," Mr Sirius Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation at a meeting with senior French, British and German officials, told reporters.
"What has been agreed is that we will continue the dialogue," he said outside the French mission to the United Nations in Vienna, adding that the EU trio had presented their offer in "more or less clear terms".
If Iran rejects the EU offer, diplomats say, most European nations will back US demands that Tehran be reported to the UN Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in November.
Asked if Iran was afraid of being reported to the Security Council, Mr Naseri said only: "We are not threatening each other."
Diplomats said the EU's "big three" had the reluctant blessing of the US in making the offer, despite Washington's belief that Iran was using talks with the EU to buy time to acquire the capability to build a nuclear bomb.
"At this point Iranian compliance doesn't seem likely . . . based on Iran's history and their current expressions," a US State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, said.
Iran maintains that its nuclear programme is only for power generation and that it will never give up uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors or material for atom bombs.
The IAEA, the UN atomic watchdog, has been investigating Iran's nuclear programme for more than two years.
It has uncovered many previously hidden activities that could be related to a weapons programme but has found no "smoking gun".
President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday that if Iran was guaranteed the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, Tehran would "present everything necessary to prove that Iran will not produce an atomic bomb. But we will not give up our rights."
The influential former president of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, reinforced the message yesterday as the talks were beginning, saying: "We have announced our stance repeatedly. It is irreversible."
Some diplomats say Iranian officials have never clearly explained why their oil-rich state needs nuclear energy or why they are so intent on producing nuclear fuel years before any Iranian atomic-power facilities would be in need of such fuel.
President Khatami said on Wednesday: "We cannot rely on other countries to supply our nuclear fuel as they can stop it any time due to political pressures."
A western diplomat said acceptance of the EU offer could protect it from the Security Council. "If Iran accepts it, it could strengthen their hand in November," he said.
The Europeans are offering to support the building of light-water reactor systems - less suited for developing fissile material for nuclear weapons - if Iran will scrap plans to build a heavy-water research reactor.
Other incentives in the European offer include resumption of talks on an EU-Iran trade pact and guarantees of Russian fuel.